Comments on: Review: Wi-Fire more than delivers on its 3x Wi-Fi boost claim

By: Old Unshaven One

Old Unshaven One — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:19:32 +0000

I see I’m not alone! A couple years ago I bought a Wi-Fire that did manage to improve the signal a little bit from my wireless router 300 feet away. Amazon’s product description here above should say: “Suffering from dropped packets and spotty connections? You must be using a Wi-fire!” I wish I had a dollar for every reinstall of the buggy WiFire drivers I had to do to get the thing even to work somewhat reliably. Technical support was very poor, delaying an entire month with slow email runaround excuses before finally and begrudgingly replacing the dead-on-arrival unit I received.
But now the good news: I discovered the Alfa “USB 500mW WiFI b/g Adapter” online and decided to try one. My network signal strength went from the Wi-Fire’s 15-20% to over 50% immediately (double the number of bars) and it didn’t drop the connection. Data transfer was much better and even other APs in the area are now visible that didn’t appear before. So, like many others’ experience here, I, too, suggest you ignore the rather obviously manufacturer-written testimonials elsewhere on the net, save yourself some money and buy the much less expensive and more stable–both electronically and mechanically–Alfa wireless adapters. Don’t waste money on the bigger Alfa antenna, though, because the small one it comes with works just as good, I learned unfortunately. I realize this sounds like an advertisement but I’d like to add my two cents’ worth about how crappy this Wi-Fire thing is, now that there are alternatives. In fact, if someone knows of an even better and cheaper unit than the Alfa, please let me know!

By: bouaf

bouaf — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:35:02 +0000

hello,
moi j’ai une question sur ce produit !!
il est compatible BACKTRACK de chez linux ou non ???
est quel chipset il y a dedans??
merci

By: e

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:52:04 +0000

Ok, just FYI:

*****************

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:19 PM, wrote:
Hello Emmanuel,

We are close to a finalization of the new software, and would like to offer you a download of our latest build. I’d like to see if the new Beta software version improves your results.

You can download the latest build here: http://www.hfield.com/download/WCM_169.zip

We’re inviting select customers to try it and give us some feedback.

The zip has two files clearly labeled for Leopard and Tiger respectively. You should have no problems with installation, particularly if you’re still using 1.0. If you are using our earlier pre-release of 2.0 installed, there’s a slight possibility the installation won’t be perfect. If you have any problems getting it working immediately, it’s probably a sign that the installation didn’t go quite right. I don’t expect any problems, but I’ve only sent this release to a couple people so far. I’ve had no reported problems. To be clear, if there’s any issue at all it will be minor and easy to fix with some support from us – there’s no risk to your computer.

You will find a number of small clean-up issues remain. Following are notes about limitations of use, current workarounds, and remaining issues of which you should be aware.

1) Wi-Fire may not be able to maintain a connection to WPA2 networks.
The problem may be more severe in situations with high data traffic, for instance, streaming video or sending a large file. If you are disconnected, unplugging and replugging in the Wi-Fire may be necessary for you to reconnect to any network.

2) Some users experience problems with connecting to a network they’ve connected to in the past, but have changed the security settings for. For instance, if you connect to and create a profile for “My Home
Network”, which uses WEP, but later change “My Home Network” to WPA. If you experience problems connecting, try deleting the profile and recreating it when you connect.

3) WEP networks can’t connect with ASCII password. You should enter your password with Hex password if you are using WEP, prepending it with “0x”.

4) WPA and WPA2 won’t work with hostAP, a rarely used Linux application that turns an entire Linux computer into an access point. There is no work around to this issue, but hostAP is very uncommon. If you are connecting to a Wireless Access Point and not an entire computer, this issue will not impact you.

5) In the “Available Networks” table, you can click on the Signal Strength bar and change it. Changing the signal strength has no impact on anything at all. This is just one of the easy items remaining while we’ve been testing the WPA2 issues we observed.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

Regards,
Ryan

*****************

So, that’s more than one month and the “finalized” driver is still not available:

Mac users feel like a fifth wheel!

At hfield they are really making fun of us!

By: ejg

ejg — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:45:34 +0000

It makes no sense to criticize this antenna by saying “my internal shows 100% but the wi-fire shows 80-90%”. Note that Wi-fire was made to better your connection distance by supplying a very sensitive antenna combined with a very small reflector focused in a specific direction. The oversensitive antenna over saturates close in which is why you see erroneous measurements for your close by/home network. I question the credibility of some of the negative tests reported here.

I myself am able to connect to a neighbors network and speed test shows 7Mbps down, 3Mbps up. The network is about 300 yards away. Signal strength is 50% whereas I could not see the signal with my laptop. Great antenna except the clip-on really is a joke. Better to set it on a flat surface.

One has to understand antenna design and working characteristics to fairly test the unit. Many people are just too ignorant to know what they are doing in their hokey test process.

By: Wonk

Wonk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:59:29 +0000

I ordered this adapter to help me with flaky macintosh wireless problems. I cannot get to work, and I spent four years working for my college IT dept. I’ve installed and uninstalled and reinstalled the driver thrice on a powerbook and once on a macbook with zero joy. The setup instructions are written like the setup is automagic. Not so much. The wifire connects most of the time and then loses the network, even in the same room. When you load a saved profile, it connects and within minutes disconnects with no warning. The wifire also frequently mistakes ssid names (displays gibberish) and encryption type on known networks.
Save your money; this is a stinker, at least in my experience.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:25:21 +0000

I don’t understand how it’s not working for everyone. It seems like I’m not the only one who’s gotten it to work with their mac. And close to the router I don’t think it’s any better than airport, but after 100 or more feet it’s definitely much better. So yeah, maybe some people installed it wrong or something.

By: Red

Red — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:33:06 +0000

Used this for about a month now, and its worst than my interal antenna. I get slower speeds and worst connection.

So I thought I was just to far from my router. Moved next to the router….

Internal = 100%
Wi=Fire = 90%

The Wi-Fire was point right at the router. Did some download test speeds…

Internal = 300-500 kb
Wi-Fire = 20-30 kb

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:20:31 +0000

I have to agree the software for Leopard is not really functional it often causes kernal_task to eat up all my cpu cycles and nothing but restart will fix the issue. Great idea, but useless without functional software. Still no sign for their improved Version 2.0 software either even with a Summer 2008 release date.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:41:51 +0000

What version of the software is everyone using? I am looking into getting the Wi-Fire, and from their website it looks like Version 2.0 integrates a lot better with OS X. Does anyone have some firsthand experience?

By: Troy H

Troy H — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:07:38 +0000

I have it working fine in Leopard — just as long as I don’t disconnect it, put the machine to sleep, or try to close the software. This is on a 1.25 ghz Powerbook. I keep hoping for a software upgrade, because I don’t think I can live with this device for long.